Monday, December 15, 2008

It's rare that I see any of the new Simpsons episodes, so I missed this little cameo during last night's episode. Marv Albert made an appearance as himself, well his voice did, and I wanted to pass along the clip. First though, Marv did an interview with USA Today, and had this to say about his experience tapping the show.

While the breadth of Marv Albert's cinematic oeuvre is substantial, he's been narrowly typecast: He always plays a sportscaster — specifically, always himself.

But still, the TNT NBA analyst and longtime sportscaster doesn't feel Hollywood has overlooked his potential versatility: "I was up for the lead in Quantum of Solace, but I passed. You have to know your limitations."

But even always playing yourself doesn't mean you can't stretch. On Fox's The Simpsons Sunday, he played himself calling a game while being attacked by bees. The show's star, he says, generously helped him with back story and motivation — "Homer was on the phone talking me through it."

I still think Al Michaels performance on Hawaii Five-O was better, but not bad at all. So with that cameo, you can add an appearance on "The Simpsons" to Marv's long illustrious Movie/TV career which includes such classics as: The Cookout, How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days, Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins, Sesame Street, Saved By the Bell, The Fish That Saved Pittsburgh, Frasier, The King of Queens, Everybody Loves Raymond, Eddie and The Game Plan!

Off topic...was wondering if anyone else was getting this, but I was scanning the tv around 9pm in the Philly area (Comcast) and came across an unlisted channel 280 which looked to be airing a test of the MLB Network and a documentary of the 2005 World Series.

From what I saw, it looks to be pretty good, following an NFL Channel/ESPN format with a scroll at the bottom of the screen.